List of Hamilton College people

Hamilton College is a private, independent liberal arts college located in Clinton, New York. It has been coeducational since 1978, when it merged with Kirkland College.

Below is a non-comprehensive list of Hamiltonians who have made notable achievements or contributions in their chosen fields.

Notable alumni

Selected Hamilton Alumni

Nobel Peace Prize-winning US Secretary of State Elihu Root, class of 1864

US Vice President James S. Sherman, class of 1878

US Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, class of 1972

Renowned modern poet Ezra Pound, class of 1905

Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Paul Greengard, class of 1948

Actor and writer Paul Lieberstein, class of 1989

Law, government, and politics

Legislative branch

• David Jewett Baker, class of 1816 - U.S. Senator from Illinois^[1]
• Matt Cartwright, class of 1983 - U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania^[2]
• Michael Castle, class of 1961 - 69th Governor of Delaware, U.S. Representative from Delaware, 2010 Senate candidate (graduation speaker 2004)^[3]
• Thomas Treadwell Davis, class of 1831 - U.S. Representative from New York^[4]
• Joseph Irwin France, class of 1895 - U.S. Senator from Maryland^[5]
• Abijah Gilbert, class of 1822 - U.S. Senator from Florida^[6]
• Joseph Roswell Hawley, class of 1847 - served two terms in the United States House of Representatives; four-term U.S. Senator from Connecticut; 42nd Governor of Connecticut^[7]
• John N. Hungerford, class of 1846 - U.S. Representative from New York (1877–79)^[8]
• Irving Ives, class of 1919 - U.S. Senator from New York^[9]
• Henry B. Payne, class of 1832 - U.S. Senator from Ohio^[10]

Executive branch

• Drew S. Days, III, class of 1963 - United States Solicitor General, 1993–1996; currently Alfred M. Rankin Professor of Law at Yale Law School
• William Henry Harrison Miller, class of 1861 - United States Attorney General, 1889–1893
• Victor H. Metcalf, Law School class of 1868 - US Secretary of the Navy (1906–08)
• Ralph Oman, class of 1962 - United States copyright law
• Elihu Root, class of 1864 - United States Secretary of State and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912
• James S. Sherman, class of 1878 - Vice President of the United States
• Tom Vilsack, class of 1972 - United States Secretary of Agriculture; governor of Iowa; candidate for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president; 2001 graduation speaker

Judicial branch

• Charles Fremont Amidon, class of 1882 - Judge for the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota
• Ward Hunt (attended) - United States Supreme Court Justice (1872–82)
• David Aldrich Nelson, class of 1954 - Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Alfred W. Newman, class of 1857 - Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice
• Roger Gordon Strand, class of 1955 - Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Arizona
• John Curtiss Underwood, class of 1832 - lawyer, abolitionist politician, judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
• William James Wallace - Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Diplomats

• Philip Jessup, class of 1917 - diplomat, international law scholar, ambassador
• Sol Linowitz, class of 1935 - attorney, diplomat; negotiated return of the Panama Canal
• William H. Luers, class of 1951 - US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1983–86)
• Arnold Raphel, class of 1964 - US Ambassador to Pakistan (1987–88)
• Edward S. Walker, Jr., class of 1962 - former Ambassador to Israel, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, Middle East Institute president, Hamilton professor
• John B. Emerson, class of 1975 - US Ambassador to Germany (2013 - present)

State and city politicians, activists, and other

• Dean Alfange, class of 1922 - politician; founding member of the Liberal Party of New York; Greek-American; Zionist activist^[11]
• Mary Bonauto, class of 1983 - gay rights activist and attorney; successfully argued the Obergefell v. Hodges case that overturned state bans on same-sex marriage in 2015.
• George W. Clinton, class of 1825 - Mayor of Buffalo, District Attorney of Ontario County, United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, Judge of the Buffalo Superior Court^[12]
• Steve Culbertson, class of 1979 - President & Chief Executive Officer at Youth Service America
• Bruce Cutler, class of 1970 - Criminal defense lawyer; attorney for John Gotti and Louis Eppolito
• Bela Hubbard, class of 1834 - Michigan pioneer, writer, geologist, lawyer, lumberman
• Robert Parris Moses, class of 1956 - civil rights activist (the Algebra Project)
• Bill Purcell, class of 1976 - mayor of Nashville
• Thomas J. Schwarz, class of 1969 - senior partner and former national practice leader of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Litigation Department; former acting president of Hamilton^[13]
• Gerrit Smith, class of 1818 -- leading abolitionist, philanthropist, and temperance activist. Member of the so-called Secret Six group of abolitionists who financed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.
• Theodore Dwight Weld - abolitionist

Literature and journalism

• Samuel Hopkins Adams, class of 1891 - author
• Henry Allen, class of 1963 - critic who won Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
• Frank Baldwin, class of 1985 - author of Balling the Jack
• Albert Barnes, class of 1820 - theologian
• Josh Billings, class of 1840 (did not graduate) - pen name of Henry Wheeler Shaw
• Terry Brooks, class of 1966 - fantasy author
• Peter Cameron, class of 1982 - author of Leap Year, The Weekend, Andorra, and The City of Your Final Destination
• Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight, class of 1835 - educator and author
• Alf Evers, class of 1928 (did not graduate) - historian
• Amanda Filipacchi, class of 1988 - author of Nude Men, Vapor, and Love Creeps
• James Grinwis - poet
• George Wheeler Hinman, class of 1884 - newspaper publisher and writer
• Harry Kondoleon, class of 1977 - author and playwright, Obie Award winner
• Thomas Meehan, class of 1951 - wrote the books for the musicals Annie and The Producers
• John Nichols, class of 1962 - author of The Milagro Beanfield War and The Sterile Cuckoo
• Bruce Porter, class of 1959 - professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and author of Blow (the basis for 1999 film Blow featuring Johnny Depp)
• Ezra Pound, class of 1905 - poet, modernist polemicist, critic
• Kamila Shamsie, class of 1995 - novelist
• Clinton Scollard, class of 1881 - poet
• Evan Smith, class of 1987 — Texas Tribune CEO and editor-in-chief
• Charles Dudley Warner, class of 1851 - essayist
• Alexander Woollcott, class of 1909 - critic and commentator; early contributor to The New Yorker; member of the Algonquin Round Table

Scientists, mathematicians and researchers

• Paul Greengard, class of 1948 - neuroscientist awarded Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000
• Edward Skinner King, class of 1887 - astronomer and developer of the King Tracking Rate
• William Howell Masters, class of 1938 -physician and research pioneer in the fields of hormone replacement therapy and sexology; co-author (with Virginia E. Johnson) of Human Sexual Response (1966)
• B.F. Skinner, class of 1926 - behavioral psychologist
• Augustus William Smith, class of 1825 - mathematician and astronomer

Other scholars

• Samih Farsoun - influential Arab Studies scholar
• Daniel Willard Fiske (did not graduate) - Icelandic scholar
• Matthew Kahn - economist, author of Climatopolis
• James H. Morey - medievalist

Arts and entertainment

• Robert Bilheimer, class of 1966 - Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, A Closer Walk
• Kevin Burns, class of 1977 - Emmy Award-winning television producer and filmmaker
• Tori Campbell, class of 1986 - morning news anchor, KTVU
• Lisa Daniels, class of 1994 - MSNBC anchor
• Peter Falk, class of 1949 (did not graduate) - actor, most famous for Columbo TV series
• Nat Faxon, class of 1997 - Academy Award-winning screenwriter (The Descendants); actor (Grosse Pointe, Joey, Beerfest)
• Josh Gardner - actor, comedian, writer; best known as the titular character in the cult TV show Gerhard Reinke's Wanderlust
• Jonathan Gilbert - actor, Little House on the Prairie
• Eugene Goossen (1921–1997), art critic and historian.^[14]
• Hilary Gordon, class of 1999 - child actor (The Great Outdoors, The Mosquito Coast)
• Joe Howard, class of 1972 - actor, Mathnet
• Frederick King Keller, class of 1972 - television and movie director
• Harry Kondoleon, class of 1977 - playwright and novelist; awarded Fulbright, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim fellowships
• Christopher Kostow, class of 1999 - executive chef, The Restaurant at Meadowood; James Beard Foundation Award winner and recipient of three Michelin stars
• Paul Lieberstein, class of 1989 - actor, Toby Flenderson on NBC's The Office
• Grayson McCouch, class of 1991 - actor, As the World Turns
• Richard Nelson, class of 1972 - playwright; current director of playwriting program at Yale University
• Sarah Rafferty, class of 1993 - actress, Suits, 2011–present
• Jay Reise, class of 1982 - composer
• Evan Schneider, class of 1990 - photojournalist for the United Nations
• Ryan Serhant, class of 2006 - actor, realtor, Million Dollar Listing New York^[15]
• David Thornton, class of 1977 - actor; husband of Cyndi Lauper
• Thomas Tull, class of 1992 - founder, chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures
• Melinda Wagner, class of 1979 - winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music Composition

Businesspeople

• J. Carter Bacot, class of 1955 - former chairman and CEO, Bank of New York
• Robert F. Bernstock, class of 1972 - Former President of the United States Postal Service (2008–2010)
• David Blood, class of 1981 - co-founder (with Al Gore) and Managing Partner of Generation Investment Management; former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management
• William McLaren Bristol, class of 1882 - co-founder of Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Dan Ferguson, class of 1948 - former CEO of Newell Rubbermaid
• James L. Ferguson, class of 1949 - former CEO of General Foods
• Edward Gelsthorpe, class of 1942 - marketing executive called "Cranapple Ed" for his best-known product launch^[16]
• David P. Hess, class of 1977 - President of Pratt & Whitney
• Joel Johnson, class of 1965 - CEO of Hormel (1993–2005)
• John Jay Knox, class of 1849 - financier and Comptroller of the Treasury (1867–84)
• A. G. Lafley, class of 1969 - CEO of Procter & Gamble; named one of America's Best Leaders by US News
• Eric Kuhn, class of 2009 - Media strategist; brought social platforms to CBS News, CNN, NBA,
• John Ripley Myers, class of 1887 - co-founder of Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Dan Nye, class of 1988 - former CEO of LinkedIn
• Marc Randolf, class of 1980 - co-founder of Netflix
• John G. Rice, class of 1978 - Vice Chairman of General Electric, and President and CEO of GE Infrastructure
• Stephen Sadove, class of 1973 - CEO of Saks Incorporated, the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue; a Hamilton Trustee
• David Solomon, class of 1984 - co-head of Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs^[17]

Clergy

• David Riddle Breed, class of 1867 - Presbyterian theologian, author of History and Use of Hymns and Hymn Tunes
• Edwin Otway Burnham, class of 1852 - rifle-shooting Presbyterian missionary in Sioux Indian territory
• Franklin Clark Fry, class of 1921 - President of the United Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church in America
• Arthur Tappan Pierson, class of 1857 - Presbyterian theologian; author of The Crisis of Missions (1886)
• George Warren Wood Jr., class of 1865 - Presbyterian missionary to Northern Michigan, missionary to the Dakota Mission, and charter member of the utopian Fairhope Single Tax Corporation^[18]

Sports

• Guy Hebert, class of 1989 - professional hockey player
• Garret Kramer, class of 1984 - sports psychologist
• Merritt Paulson, class of 1995 - majority owner of Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns
• Bill Smith, class of 1980 - General Manager, Minnesota Twins
• Kevin P. Smith, class of 1977 - professional basketball player, Washington Generals
• Kyle Smith, class of 1992 - head men's basketball coach, Columbia University
• Ward Wettlaufer, class of 1959 - amateur golfer
• Gillian Zucker, class of 1990 - former president of Auto Club Speedway, and currently president of business operations for the Los Angeles Clippers.
• Joseph Lin, class of 2015 - professional basketball player in the Taiwanese Super Basketball League; brother of NBA player Jeremy Lin.

Titles and Peerages

• Sir David Hayes, class of 1981 - Chevalier of the National Order of Merit (France)

Alumni from Works of Fiction

• Newspaper editor Charles Webb from the Thorton Wilder play Our Town

Notable faculty

Current members

• Frank Anechiarico government and law
• Dennis Gilbert - sociologist, developed the Gilbert Model
• Maurice Isserman - historian with notable works on the American Left, the 1960s, and mountaineering
• Derek C. Jones - economist
• Philip Klinkner - political scientist specializing in American politics
• Scott MacDonald - avant-garde film historian
• Jack F. Matlock, Jr. - former US Ambassador to Soviet Union under Reagan
• Heidi Ravven - expert on Jewish ethics, Spinoza, and the relationship between religion and science
• Edward S. Walker - former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Egypt, and the UAE; Middle East specialist

Former members (both permanent and visiting)

• Agha Shahid Ali - poet, finalist for the National Book Award
• Robert C. Allen - economic historian and professor at Oxford University
• Alfred Atherton - former United States Ambassador to Egypt
• J. Brian Atwood - diplomat and former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development
• Natalie Babbitt - author of children's literature, Tuck Everlasting
• Thomas Bass - author, The Eudaemonic Pie
• Joel Black - literary critic
• Brigitte Boisselier - Raëlian and CEO of Clonaid, the "scientific wing" of the Raëlian movement
• Hermann Carl George Brandt - German literature and language scholar
• Francis Marion Burdick -legal scholar and longtime professor at Columbia Law School
• Albert Huntington Chester - geologist and mountaineer
• Richard N. Current - historian, winner of the Bancroft Prize
• Hubert Dreyfus - artificial intelligence philosopher and professor at University of California, Berkeley
• Sereno Edwards Dwight - intellectual historian and Congregationalist minister
• Theodore William Dwight - jurist and pioneering dean of Columbia Law School
• Edwin Erickson - member of the Pennsylvania Senate, representing the 26th District
• James Fankhauser - conductor
• Karl Geiringer - German-American musicologist and biographer
• Richard Haas - President of the Council on Foreign Relations
• Elaine Tuttle Hansen - president of Bates College
• Jerome B. Komisar - economist and President of the University of Alaska
• John Hiram Lathrop - first president of the University of Missouri; first chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; president of Indiana University
• George Lenczowski - political scientist and longtime professor at University of California, Berkeley
• Arthur Marder - naval historian
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty - post-colonial feminist theorist
• John Monteith - first President of the University of Michigan
• Howard Nemerov - poet, twice Poet Laureate of the United States
• Duncan Rice - Principal of the University of Aberdeen; former Vice-Chancellor of New York University
• David P. Robbins - mathematician
• Bernie Sanders - U.S. Senator from Vermont
• A.P. Saunders - professor of chemistry; peony breeder; compiled genetic records (with G. Ledyard Stebbins) of 15,000 new hybrids
• Clinton Scollard - poet
• Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick - gender theorist and cultural critic
• Kamila Shamsie - novelist
• Charles Henry Smyth, Jr. - geologist
• Leo Strauss - political philosopher and classicist
• Orest Subtelny - scholar of Ukrainian history

Presidents of Hamilton College^[19]

• Azel Backus, 1812-16
• Henry Davis, 1817-33
• Sereno Edwards Dwight, 1833-35
• Joseph Penney, 1835-39
• Simeon North, 1839-57
• Samuel Ware Fisher, 1858-66
• Samuel Gilman Brown, 1866-81
• Henry Darling, 1881-91
• Melancthon Woolsey Stryker, 1892-1917
• Frederick Carlos Ferry, 1917-38
• William Harold Cowley, 1938-44
• David Worcester, 1945-47
• Thomas Brown Rudd, 1947-49
• Robert Ward McEwen, 1949-66
• Richard Watrous Couper, 1966-68 (acting)
• John Wesley Chandler, 1968-73
• Samuel Fisher Babbitt, 1968-78 (Kirkland College)
• J. Martin Carovano, 1974-88
• Harry C. Payne, 1988-93
• Eugene M. Tobin, 1993-2003
• Joan Hinde Stewart, 2003 -

References

1. "Class of 1816 Letter David Jewett Baker". Hamilton College. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
2. "Matthew Cartwright '83 Runs for Congress Alumni News & Notes". Hamilton College. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
3. "Delaware Congressman, Alumnus Mike Castle to Deliver Commencement Address". Hamilton College. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
4. Hamilton College (1860). Catalogue. Hamilton College. p. 33. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
5. Clark University (Worcester, Mass.) (1899). Decennial celebration, 1889-1899. Clark. p. 494. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
6. "GILBERT, Abijah, (1806 - 1881)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
7. "HAWLEY, Joseph Roswell, (1826 - 1905)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
8. Hamilton College (1904). Hamilton Literary Magazine, Volume 39. Hamilton College. p. 48.
9. Courier Press (1916). Hamilton Literary Magazine, Volume 51. Courier Press. p. 419.
10. Hamilton College (1917). Hamilton Literary Magazine, Volume 52. Hamilton College. p. 33. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
11. The Trustees of Hamilton College (2010). "An Inspiration to All: Dean Alfange, Class of 1922". Clinton, Oneida County, New York: Hamilton College. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
12. Ellis, William Arba (1911). Norwich University, 1819-1911: Her History, Her Graduates, Her Roll of Honor, Volume 3. Montpelier, VT: Capital City Press. p. 567.
13. "Thomas J. Schwarz". Skadden. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
14. Dobryznski, Judith H. "Eugene Goossen, 76, Art Critic", The New York Times, July 17, 1997. Accessed July 25, 2010.
15. "Ryan Serhant NestSeekers International Million Dollar Listings". Nest Seekers. 2015-10-15. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
16. Grimes, William. "Edward Gelsthorpe, Master Marketer, Dies at 88", The New York Times, September 27, 2009. Accessed September 29, 2009.
17. LaCapra, Lauren (2011-06-26). "Goldman's Solomon: Dark horse contender in CEO race". Reuters. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
18. Tompkins, Hamilton Bullock (1877). Biographical Record of the Class of 1865, of Hamilton College. p. 77. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
19. "Office of the President - Hamilton College Presidents - Hamilton College". Hamilton.edu. 2001-08-15. Retrieved 2015-11-07.